


Home Together

by kageillusionz



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Blind!Charles, First Kiss, First Love, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:16:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kageillusionz/pseuds/kageillusionz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles was born blind, but that does not stop him from falling in love with the new boy in his class. Based off the Brazilian film: 'Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho' or 'I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Together

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to **afrocurl** for such swift betaing work! Also thanks to **luciddrugs** , **madneto** and **black--betty** for this [post](http://luciddrugs.tumblr.com/post/56860255695/black-betty-it-should-be-said-that-the-kid-on) that prompted this fic in the first place.   
>  You don't have to watch the movie to understand the fic, but I highly encourage you to check it out because it is really sweet! Cavities ahoy!

Erik is the new boy in his class. He's tall and lanky, has light auburn hair and mysterious pale blue eyes. Apparently that combination makes him somewhat handsome, although Charles can’t picture it properly. Erik is also a year older than them at the sweet age of sixteen, just like the rest of their home class. Or so Raven, Charles' childhood best friend, tells him anyway when Erik stands up the front when he is introducing himself.

Erik lives a block away from Charles and they walk to and from home together everyday. And even when Erik has soccer practise in the afternoon, Charles and Raven elect to wait for him, spending time in the library to finish off their homework.

On the walk home, Charles holds onto Raven's upper arm just above her elbow. Erik banks him from the other side, a warm sturdy presence. They laugh and joke about until they reach Charles’ house, parting ways as Raven retraces her steps back two blocks and Erik continues forth.

Sometimes their arms will brush, bare skin against bare skin. But only just for a moment. Then there are the other times when Erik is wearing his soccer practise jacket. The fabric is surprisingly soft and smells strongly of Erik. It is a scent that Charles has started to associate with being safe.

The three of them are inseparable. They sit together during class with Raven in the desk directly next to Charles at the front of the classroom and Erik sits behind him. Together they box Charles into the corner where he attentively makes notes with his Perkins Brailler. Their classmates joke about the sound it makes once Charles reaches the end of a line, a joke that Raven vehemently defends against with the addition of a glare from Erik that quiets them quick.

Charles is grateful to have such great friends.

They sit together during both recess and lunch. And as the semester continues with assignments to be done and quizzes to study for, they spend more and more time at Charles' place; his pantries are filled with Erik’s favourite snacks and Raven’s favourite drinks.

He doesn't even realize it when he starts walking with his hand around Erik's arm on the way home. It all feels so natural to him when he has been walking with Erik every morning.

* * *

"What is it like being, well, you know?" Erik asks one afternoon as they finish off their paired assignment about motors and generators. Raven doesn’t take physics with them, preferring to study biology instead. That means pairing off for laboratory classes and group assignments is unanimously decided.

"Devastatingly handsome or blind?" Charles retorts with a cheeky grin. He lifts his fingers off the textbook written in Braille and leans against the headboard of his bed.

Erik chuckles to himself and sets his pen down. "Blind. Ah. Not that you aren’t both."

"Flattery will get you anywhere, my friend," Charles smiles, feeling his cheeks flush from the compliment. "Well. I've been like this since the day I was born. Being blind is just another part of who I am. Sometimes I get angry for not knowing what the colour of the sky is or what people look like. But who doesn't get angry from time to time?"

Charles takes the last sip of his chocolate milk, slurping noisily at the bottom of the carton. Erik murmurs, "I don't know what I'd do if I was blind."

He sets the carton down next to his knee and shrugs. "You learn to live with it. And it's not all bad. People tend to do favours for you all the time. Come on, let's get back to work."

Erik laughs and stands up from the desk, the wheels of Charles’ desk chair rolling across the hardwood floors. Erik reaches over, his hand casually brushing the side of Charles’ knee. The sound of the straw dancing in the empty carton tells Charles the carton is now in Erik’s hand. "Sure thing. Let me go put these in the trash."

“See!” Erik pauses in the doorway of Charles’ room.

“What?”

Charles turns towards him with a bright smile on his face. “Favours!” Erik chuckles and heads out into the kitchen. Charles’ parents had a strange policy about leaving empty food cartons inside the bedroom bins. Charles likes it when Erik laughs.

 

An hour later when they take their next break, Erik stretches with a low whine and exhales shortly. Charles sympathises and sets the textbook aside to flex his fingers.

"So you and Raven..." Erik’s voice tapers off.

"What about us?" Charles asks and looks in Erik’s direction. He's into his second carton of chocolate milk.

"You guys are close. I think she likes you."

"She's my best friend since forever. Of course she does."

Erik lets out a huff of annoyance and it makes Charles smile that he can almost hear the sound of Erik's eyes rolling.

"No, silly. I meant she's totally into you."

"Oh. Well." Charles pauses and thinks about Raven. She’s studious and sweet and always there for Charles when he needs her. He takes a sip through his straw and grimaces when he thinks that Raven was more like his older sister that makes sure he is okay, definitely not material one considers when looking for a girlfriend.

"So you don't like her that way?"

"No. I'm incapable of thinking about her in that way."

Erik hums thoughtfully, then says, "Ok."  They don’t speak of the subject anymore.

* * *

The next day at school during English, Erik taps him on the shoulder. "Charles."

Erik's breath ghosts over his skin, caressing the little hairs on the back of his neck, making them stand on end. "Yeah?" It isn’t the first time nor the last that Erik’s talked to him during class but there’s just something about it that seems so intimate. Charles is proud that his voice doesn't waver.

"I left my jacket at your place, yesterday. Do you think I can come by and pick it up?"

It wasn't like Erik to be so mindless of his things, but it does explain why earlier that morning Charles had enclosed his arm over skin instead of fabric. "That's not a problem. I don't have anything on this afternoon."

"Ah... well I have a dentist appointment after school. But I'll come by after that?"

Charles nods, his stomach fluttering nervously for no reason. "Ok."

* * *

The school day ends with the trill from the school bell in the corner. Everyone is eager to get out of the classroom. Erik bids them both with a cheerful farewell and only till his footsteps recede does Charles start to slowly puts away his things. There really isn't much to fit into his satchel and it's usually Raven that he's waiting to finish packing up anyway. And it’s almost soothing to hear the thumps of heavy textbooks fill her backpack.

He licks his lips, wavering between telling her or not. Raven tells him everything, from the boys that she finds herself crushing on to the latest gossip about the girl that could possibly have a crush on Charles. Not that the latter mattered to Charles one jot.

"Raven? There's something important I have to tell you. Come by to my place after?"

Raven laughs, the sound so pure and beautiful. She is excited. "What is so important that you can't tell me now?  There's no one else around. Everyone’s gone home. Tell me Charles, is it a girl?"  There's a teasing lilt to her questions.

Charles takes in a fortifying breath and then decides once and for all to just go out and say it. Now or never. He’s going all in.

"I think I'm in love with Erik."

Raven’s table scrapes across the floor, almost like she kicked it. There is the longest pause after as the sound coming from Raven's desk increases. Almost like she was trying to distract herself. "Raven?"

"Wh-What do you mean by ‘in love’, Charles?" Raven demands, a little harsher than usual that befits her bossy attitude and it takes Charles aback. She never used that tone on him. It is usually reserved for when one of their classmates pisses her off.

"I guess in a 'I want to be his boyfriend' kind of love."

Raven pauses for the longest time.

"... Does this make you gay?"

Charles has never thought about labels. He had been too focussed on his feelings towards Erik more than his sexual orientation. "I suppose it might."

The phone rings, a tinny bell like ringtone, that disrupts their conversation. She lets out a sigh of relief that Charles picks up with his improved hearing. "I'm sorry Charles. That's my mother. It's my grandfather's birthday today and we're having afternoon tea at his place. I have to go!"

It gives Raven the opening that she needs to leave the classroom.

"Wait Rav-" Charles doesn't want to walk home alone, not without knowing if he has Raven's support. What is he supposed to do? Or say when he next sees Erik? How could she just leave him like this without helping him?

"I'll stop by your house afterwards, ok? I'll skip dessert just for you! Bye!" Raven quickly runs out, and unbeknownst to Charles, there are silent tears falling down her face.

Charles sighs to himself, slowly getting out of his seat and digs through his satchel for his white cane.

"... Sure, Raven."

* * *

He walks home alone for the first time in ages. It’s strange and unfamiliar as the handle of his white cane. Although the route is familiar as the smell of his leather satchel, or the shape of the bricks that make up the outer wall of his brownstone, Charles has gotten accustomed to the sound of Raven and Erik bantering and making him laugh.

The strap of his white cane rests snugly around his wrist as he takes out his house key and fits it into the lock.

That afternoon, Charles sits by himself in the quiet of his room. When had things started to change in this little room of his? His room doesn’t feel complete without either Raven or Erik in his room quietly studying or discussing matters about school like complex mathematical equations. It is missing the sound of another person breathing, a sound that Charles finds comfort in.

With Erik gone to visit the dentist and Raven at her grandfather’s, Charles aims to distract himself from his love confession and the consequences that he’ll have to face if he does choose to tell Erik at all. He untangles the long line of his headphones and plugs it into his music player, listening to the soothing sound of Simon and Garfunkel as he lounges on his window seat. The sun streaming through the curtains feels warm upon his face, like the way he usually feels when he's around Erik.

“Erik...” Charles likes the way his name rolls off his tongue, likes the shape of it in his mouth. It seems like a strange thing to like, but to Charles it feels right.

He loses track of time and only when the doorbell sounds does Charles startle upright. It must be Raven!

He's pulling out his headphones just as the door to his room opens. Charles quickly jumps onto his feet, and says, "Raven.  I can't believe you just left me in the classroom after what I told you! I know that you might have a difficult time understanding, but I told you that and you just kept me here waiting? And I just know you ate dessert.  Here I've been asking myself if I should have told you that I am in love with Erik. What should I do?"

When she doesn't say anything, Charles prompts, "Raven?"

He doesn't expect a pair of lips pressing against his own, warm and in a chaste kiss. It isn’t Raven. Raven smells different. No. This was definitely Erik, a tapered version of the clean musky scent that clings to his soccer jacket. There is the taste of sweet artificial strawberries from that fluoride foam dentists use that seeps in between the seams of his lips. Oh. Oh! Had he just been-

The contact is fleeting and Charles reaches out for Erik, tries to pull Erik back. But all he gets is the quick heavy sound of his own breaths, and the soft click of his door opening and closing to accompany the rush of blood in his ears.

Charles sits back down against his window seat, stunned.  His mind can't help replay that moment, the brush of Erik’s lips against his own. He now possesses the glorious knowledge of being kissed. Erik, oh Erik.

Oh, Erik feels the same way! The very thought makes Charles' cheeks flush red again.

* * *

The second time his door swings open that afternoon is to admit Raven. Charles is lying on his stomach on his bed with a goofy smile on his face when she comes to sit by his ankles. He doesn't even have time to say hello when she starts, "I am so sorry I left you alone at school, Charles! I would have come here earlier but my aunts would not stop singing ‘Happy Birthday’. It was driving me crazy. Anyway that doesn't matter. About you and Erik, I'm... I’m happy for you Charles. I really am and I think it's great. I hope you’ll be happy. Know that I’ll still be your friend." It feels wonderful to hear that and Charles lets out a huge breath that he hadn't known he had been holding in. The tension in his shoulder slowly bleeds out of his muscles.

"Thank you," Charles pauses, "hey Raven?"

"Yeah?"

Another pause. "Do you see Erik's jacket around here anywhere?"

"No...?"

"Not even underneath my bed?"

Raven moves, making the mattress springs squeak and dip. "Nope, not there either. Are you sure he left it here?"

"Maybe not then. Thanks anyway." That sneaky boy!

"Are you alright?"

"Never better," Charles replies. His cheeks will hurt if he keeps carrying on smiling like this. But Charles doesn’t care. He is far too happy to care.

* * *

The morning after, Erik is already downstairs waiting for Charles, leaning against the side of the gate in his usual spot.

Charles reaches a hand out as he pushes the heavy metal gate open and Erik immediately steps in to take it within his own hands. Warm, always warm. Their fingers interlace, dispelling any of Charles' negative emotions swirling in his belly from a night of playing ‘does he, or does he not’.

"Erik..." Charles breathes out. He had been so incredibly happy last night that he almost couldn't sleep. A gentle tug comes and then he's stepping into Erik's embrace, those arms curling around his shoulders protectively.

"Good morning, Charles," Erik greets him, tone filled with affection. Charles licks his lips and then lifts his head up, expectantly. He hears Erik's fond chuckle and then feels the press of their lips together in a sweet kiss - his second kiss! They part after what feels like a lifetime and Charles cannot resist chasing after Erik’s mouth when he pulls back.

There are lips pressing against his forehead and then they slowly, regretfully, disentangle from their hug. "Hello, Erik. It is a very good morning, isn't it?"

"A very good morning indeed."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Home Together (The Finding Our Way Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1600235) by [significantowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/significantowl/pseuds/significantowl)




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